Amazon workers cool after company took heat for hot warehouse

After Amazon.com takes heat following The Morning Call's investigation of working conditions, company spends $52 million on air conditioning.

(MARTHA MILLER/THE MORNING…)

June 03, 2012|By Spencer Soper, Of The Morning Call

This time last year, online retailer Amazon.com had ambulances parked outside its Breinigsville warehouse complex on hot days, with emergency medical personnel ready to take workers suffering from heat injuries to nearby hospitals.

Today, Amazon warehouse workers say the facility is refreshingly cool when it's hot and muggy outside. The company recently installed 40 roof-top air conditioners in its 615,000-square-foot warehouse, part of a $52 million investment in cooling its warehouses around the country.

"I didn't even break a sweat today," one worker said at the end of his shift Tuesday, when Lehigh Valley temperatures topped 90 degrees. "It was really nice. I noticed the difference as soon as I walked in the door."

The dramatic change comes nine months after an investigation by The Morning Call revealed difficult working conditions in the Lehigh Valley facility. Workers interviewed said they were pushed to work at dizzying rates in brutal heat. The heat index, a real-feel measure that considers heat and humidity, surpassed 100 degrees in the warehouse multiple times last year and sometimes exceeded 110, according to reports filed with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Work in the warehouse is physical, with many employees walking more than 10 miles per shift plucking items from shelves. Workers said those who didn't move at a sufficient pace faced termination. They said quotas were not reduced when temperatures soared.

A customer backlash and heightened media scrutiny of the Seattle company's operations followed publication of The Morning Call article. The volume of complaints was sufficient for the company to give its customer service representatives statements to send in response to concerns about working conditions.

Amazon, which opened its Breinigsville complex in 2010, blamed the warehouse heat on a particularly hot spring and summer. The company installed temporary air conditioning units last year after federal workplace safety regulators began inspecting the facility. But workers said parts of the warehouse, particularly its upper levels, remained unbearably hot even after the temporary air conditioning was installed.

Amazon gave water, fruit and popsicles to workers on hot days and relaxed its attendance rules on some days to let workers leave early, though they would lose pay.

Over the past 11 weeks, Amazon has declined to answer specific questions from The Morning Call about its decision to install air conditioning at its warehouses. But the company said in a statement Thursday, "In recent years, we've built our new fulfillment centers with air conditioning units installed. This year, we are also investing $52 million to retrofit our other fulfillment centers with air conditioning. In Breinigsville, we have replaced the three large temporary units we installed last summer with forty permanent roof-mounted units that will more efficiently and evenly cool the facility."

The Morning Call obtained warehouse building permits using Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law. Thosereveal that Amazon first sought permits to install temporary air conditioning last July, several weeks after warehouse workers and an emergency room doctor who treated some of them for heat stress complained to federal regulators about conditions.

That temporary system was removed from the warehouse in November, records show, and a contractor sought permits to install permanent air conditioning in early March.

The March permit application came 21/2 months before Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos announced at an annual shareholders meeting May 24 that the company is installing air conditioning at warehouses around the country.

"It's not easy to retrofit an existing fulfillment center with air conditioning," The Seattle Times quoted Bezos as telling shareholders. "We're really leading the way here."

Bezos' announcement followed public protests against the company and working conditions at its warehouses.

Bethlehem resident Karen Salasky, who said she lost her job at Amazon's Breinigsville warehouse last summer after her work slowed in the heat, traveled to Seattle in May to participate in one of the protests near Amazon's new headquarters.

She said she was pleased to learn air conditioning is being installed at Amazon warehouses.

"It's a step in the right direction," Salasky said Friday. "Workers need to be respected."

Protecting people or products?

Business experts can only speculate why Amazon — a fast-growing enterprise that is changing the nature of retail shopping and is known for its competitive business tactics — decided to invest so much on air conditioning. The amount is equivalent to 8.2 percent of Amazon's 2011 earnings.